Outside the Endless Beast Region.
The terrifying lightning clouds had vanished, and the spectating immortals all felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
The lightning had simply been too intimidating, especially the tribulation"s final bolt. Despite a distance of tens of thousands of miles, their eyes still darted around fearfully and their hearts trembled.
"Emperor, are we permitted to enter and lay eyes upon the honorable deity?"
The speaker was a local village G.o.d. Given his status, he was only considered a minor official at best and would find it difficult to enter the Cloudy Palace of the Golden Arches in this lifetime.
However, since he was a local G.o.d here in the Endless Beast Region, he had the advantage of being in his home territory. Otherwise, he wouldn"t dare follow the North Pole Emperor in hopes of gazing upon a deity.
The other immortals" eyes lit up. A deity....
This was the sort of existence they"d only read about in ancient immortal texts. To be able to see one in person was absolutely the lucky chance of a lifetime.
"Brother f.u.xi, Ksitigarbha Boddhisatva, what do you think? "
The purple-robed North Pole Emperor turned and asked. It was someone of the Three Realms who"d achieved divinity, so higher-ups from throughout the Three Realms realms had all come.
The Heavenly Court was led by the North Pole Emperor and the Immortal Region by f.u.xi. Logically speaking, the Underworld should"ve been led by Great Sacred Emperor Equaling Heavens, but these days he was focused on breaking through and never showed his face in public.
Back when the Jade Emperor ascended, some people from the Underworld had inquired about Great Sacred Emperor Equaling Heavens.
The Jade Emperor only had smiled unfathomably and said nothing.
Ksitigarbha had no choice but to lead the Ten Yama Kings here. He actually hadn"t wanted to come, but he couldn"t refuse their demands.
The Yama Kinds alone weren"t qualified to lead a team to witness divinity.
Ksitigarbha had no choice but to take up office and lead them himself.
"Seeing the deity or not isn"t up to us. The Three-legged Divine Bluebird will guide us," Ksitigarbha said calmly. He"d been a buddhist for so long that he actually didn"t care too much about any of this.
"Ksitigarbha is right. Let"s follow the Three Divine Bluebirds."
f.u.xi"s lips curled into a smile. In truth, he and Nuwa had long since ascended to the G.o.d Realm. It was just that he couldn"t bear to part with the Immortal Region, so he"d asked for permission to return.
The people of the G.o.d Realm had sealed f.u.xi"s divine power to prevent him from disturbing the balance of the Three Realms.
But even so, since he"d already been to the G.o.d Realm, his perspective was far grander than the rest of them. He didn"t feel too strongly about gazing upon the visage of a new divinity.
The North Pole Emperor"s face darkened slightly. These two...
It seemed he was the only one concerned about this.
That was no good. For better or worse, he was the leader of the Heavenly Court. He had to stay calm.
They said to wait for the Three-Legged Divine Bluebird, so he"d just have to wait.
However, in his heart he was uncertain. The one ascending was in the Beast Region.. Who could it possibly be?
"Cheep Cheep"
The sound of birdsong resounded outward, and they flew into the Endless Beast Region.
"The Three-legged Divine Bluebird is moving," said one of the immortals.
"Follow it."
As the already impatient North Pole Emperor said this, the bluebird came to a sudden stop.
“Cheep cheep……”
The bird called out mournfully, but... it didn"t advance any further.
"What"s happened this time?"
Rumble.
A sudden crack of lightning resounded outward as a bolt of red lightning crashed downward. The gathered immortals scurried to avoid it.
“Cheep cheep……”
The Three-Legged Bluebird wailed, and with a cry turned into a beam of blue light and flew into the Beast Region.
The immortals following behind them were visibly confused.
The North Pole emperor deeply knit his brow and looked at Fu Xi. "Brother f.u.xi, isn"t the strongest heavenly lightning eighty-one bolts? You"ve been to the G.o.d Realm, have you ever heard of bolts after the eighty-first?
“No, never.”
f.u.xi gently shook his head. He didn"t know why, but a wave of panic surged through his heart.
"We followed the Three-legged Divine Bluebird. Since it"s gone in, we should be able to enter as well. Then we"ll understand what"s going on.
Crack.
Within Ye Zichen"s sea of consciousness, his cracked and injured G.o.dhead couldn"t endure the lingering remnants of lightning.
A shattered G.o.dhead wasn"t merely a heavy injury. He coughed up a mouthful of blood
He looked dazedly up into the sky, which was still clear for tens of thousands of miles.
So why, why had another crack of lightning appeared?
Wasn"t it supposed to have ended earlier?
"G.o.d Realm, are you really... so... opposed to me?
Whump.
In Maple City, Xiao Yumei was weaving clothing when the sharp point of the needle suddenly pierced her palm. A sort of indescribably terror rose from the depths of her heart.
"Zichen."
She threw the clothes she"d been working on to the ground, then stood in the gateway and called out,"Send me to the Beast Region"s Nine-tailed Fox Clan, hurry...."
In the lands of the Dragons.
As the strongest race since ancient times, the dragons had been the least affected by the zombie invasion.
Because of the Heavenly Lightning, one of the clan-elders had kept Xia Keke from leaving the palace. But due to her trouble-loving personality, she"d been begging to go out and watch the whole time. Just as she was pleading coquettishly, she felt a sudden pain in her chest.
She looked dazedly up into the air...
“Big brother Zichen...."
Roar……
An illusory golden dragon appeared behind her back. With a draconic roar, she leapt into the air and escaped.
The elders who saw this were dumbfounded, then called out, "follow the young lady, we can"t let anything happen to her"
……
“Zichen.”
This time, Su Yan paid Nuwa"s attempts to restrain her no heed, and ran crying to Ye Zichen"s side.
"Zichen, Zichen....."
Her eyes overflowed with tears.
Drop after drop fell from her worried face onto Ye Zichen"s clothing.
“Hm?”
Seeing this, Gu Li, who just moments ago believed he was about to die, was dumbfounded for a moment. Then he laughed wantonly.
His lifeless eyes lit up. He hadn"t died....
The one who died was Ye Zichen.
"Ha ha ha, I am the Son of Destiny! Ye Zichen, so what if you achieved Divine Bestowal? So what if you endured eighty-one bolts of heavenly lightning? The G.o.d Realm won"t accept you! It won"t accept you!"
Gu Li laughed without restraint. Meanwhile, back at the lightning pool, Xiao Yan spoke.
"Father, did you see it?"
"Drop one more. If he could endure eighty-one bolts, his G.o.dhead can"t be that fragile. Just in case, send one more bolt."
"But the girl by his side....."
"What about her? That"s a mere trifle. Since she"s so determined to be by his side, let her die with him.
“Understood.”
Rumble.
Another bolt of red lightning came cras.h.i.+ng down from the heavens.
"Little sister, get out of the way!"
Su Zhu called out a warning. Su Yan had been embracing Ye Zichen, but as she looked up at the bolt of red lightning, determination flashed through her eyes.
"I won"t let you hurt Zichen anymore."
Her tear-filled eyes looked directly into the lightning. Without making any attempts to dodge, she accepted it directly
"Little sister!"
Su Zhu called out in terror, waking up one-armed Su Liu"er. When she saw the sudden lightning and Su Yan standing steadfastly by Ye Zichen"s side.....
"Little sister!"
Both Su sisters screamed shrilly and rushed toward the lightning without a moment"s hesitation.
But it was too late.
Rumble.
The lightning had engulfed Su Yan and Ye Zichen. Seeing this, Su Liu"er and Su Zhu stopped and crumpled powerlessly to the ground.
Suddenly, a familiar memory flashed through Su Liu"er"s mind.
"Big sister!"